The total confirmed COVID-19 positive cases in India crossed the one million mark, nearly 170 days after the first case was registered on January 30 in Kerala.
India now has the third highest number of confirmed cases, behind the U.S.’s close to 3.5 million and Brazil’s 1.97 million cases.
On Thursday, 34,424 infections were registered, along with 676 deaths, to take the overall death toll to 25,619, the eighth highest in the world.
Galloping cases
Maharashtra registered yet another new high in total cases — 8,641 and 266 deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu’s 4,549 cases and 69 deaths. Karnataka registered its highest-ever spike — 4,169 cases and 104 deaths with overall cases reaching 51,422, the fourth highest in the country.
Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh also registered daily highs — 2,593 and 2,058 cases, along with 40 and 34 deaths, respectively. While Andhra Pradesh is among States with the highest test rates (22,812 tests among a million people), U.P. remains among those with low test rates (5,473 per million).
The relatively high increase in the daily cases on Thursday was also due to the highest number of samples tested in a day — 3,26,826 with the positivity rate yet again crossing 10%. Cases were also doubling every 21 days in India, the fastest such rate among countries with the highest case load in the world.
Despite the recovery rate being nearly 63.4%, India’s cumulative test positivity rate has now reached nearly 8% and is rising steadily, indicating that higher testing will continue to reveal more infections.
India’s seven day rolling average of deaths (568 per day) remains high compared to most countries, lower only than Brazil (1,057 per day), the U.S. (695), Mexico (587). India’s overall population is higher than these countries, leading to a lower death rate adjusted to population, but India also has a relatively younger population. COVID-19 is known to severely affect the elderly and people with co-morbidities than any other cohort.
